Mysti

Mysti, known as *The Mysti Show* during its first series, was a British children's television programme created by Mystical Productions for the BBC. It aired from 17 April 2004 to 16 December 2005. The first series was an hour-long blend of magazine features and narrative drama, but later the show was restructured into a series of 20-minute episodes that were entirely narrative.

For its first series, *The Mysti Show* aired on Saturday mornings at 10am on the CBBC Channel, with simultaneous broadcasts on BBC One before moving to BBC Two. Each hour-long episode contained 40 minutes of magazine and feature content, including a game show segment called *The Battle of Elbubb*, wrapped around two 10-minute narrative drama segments. The narrative followed Mysti (played by Laura Aikman), a half-human, half-fairy character, and her friends Rick (Oliver Mason), Ella (Eva Alexander), Ollie (Ashley Campbell), and Abby (Yasmin Paige). Recurring characters included Professor Dust (David Sterne), Tatiana (Tricia George), the fairies Snowdrop (Amy Pemberton) and Peaceblossom (Danielle Tabor), and diner owner Mr. K (Richard James). Mysti, Rick, Ella, and Ollie also appeared in character as presenters of the magazine segments, while Professor Dust hosted *The Battle of Elbubb*. Guests on the show included Jackie Chan, Steve Coogan, Kirsten Dunst, McFly, and Jamelia. The hour-long episodes were later repeated on CBBC Channel, but after the second series aired, the first-series episodes were re-edited into 20-minute narrative dramas; the magazine content from those original episodes has not been rebroadcast since the re-edit.

The second series was renamed simply *Mysti* and dropped the entertainment section, running as a 20-minute drama. In this series, the characters had grown up and were in the sixth form. Mysti was banished from the heath, lost her previous fairy magic, but gained new powers unfamiliar to the fairies. Ollie did not appear in the second series, and the only fairies featured were Dust, Saber, Tatiana, and Peri; the other fairies from the first series were absent.